Yahoo! Declares Hastings, NE America's Greenest City

America's greenest city? According to the folks at Yahoo!, it's Hastings, NE, the same city that introduced the world to Kool-Aid, some 80 years ago. So, how was this definitivie list calculated? The most solar panels or least amount of...

America's greenest city? According to the folks at Yahoo!, it's Hastings, NE, the same city that introduced the world to Kool-Aid, some 80 years ago. So, how was this definitivie list calculated? The most solar panels or least amount of carbon emissions per capita? Not exactly.

The Yahoo! sponsored America's Greenest City Challenge was tabulated based on the following criteria:

Yep, in order to qualify as the "greenest city," entrants had to make a pledge to Yahoo! and participate in various Yahoo!-related green services, such as searching for "eco terms" on their mobile device and asking environmentally-related questions on Yahoo! Answers--perhaps not the most scientific method for determining such a title. Some of the more cynical among us might even suggest that this whole contest was more of a scheme to promote the company than any immediate environmental cause.

But we don't want to get all acid rainy on Hastings's parade, and would like to extend our congratulations to the city on their award. The Hastings will be awarded with a hybrid taxi "fleet," (or the cash equivalent thereof), so this is ultimately a good thing, after all. And if Yahoo! happens to get a bit of press from, say, a software blog or two, it's a win-win situation all around, right?

Brian Heater has worked at a number of tech pubs, including Engadget, Laptop, and PCMag (where he served as Senior Editor). Most recently, he was as the Managing Editor of TechTimes.com. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. He hosts the weekly Boing Boing interview podcast RiYL, has appeared as a regular NPR contributor and shares his Queens apartment with a rabbit named Lucy.
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